The finely made vases produced by the Greek colonists in South Italy and Sicily in the later 5th and 4th centuries BC, typically decorated with red figures against a black background, were at first closely modeled on Athenian prototypes. But they soon began to evolve their own distinctive style, exhibiting the particular characteristics described and depicted here in some 600 black and white photographs. The red figure vases, while beautiful works of art, are also important sources for illuminating the studies of mythology and drama, local customs, and the relations between the Greek settlers and the native inhabitants.